Special guests will be coming from across Canada and the US, as well as from Italy, France, the [U]K, Croatia, Norway, Denmark, Japan, and Vietnam, with some 400 exhibitors turning the TRL into the coolest place in the Great White North for the weekend. Anniversary celebrations will be held for publishers Koyama Press (10 years), 2D Cloud (10 years) Image Comics (25 years), and NBM Publishing (40 years), along with a special pavilion of German comics and creators (which will continue with the biannual Comic-Salon Erlangen in Germany). And debuts! There will be book debuts from Canadians Jillian Tamaki, Guy Delisle, and Jeff Lemire, along with debuts of books about Canada from at least three (I lost count, to tell you the truth) international artists.

And for all of this, what treasure does Butcher demand of you? What prize is worth it to be around this much pure comicking goodness? Not one thin Canadian dime. As in all past iterations, TCAF is free and open to the public, so get yourself to the T-O the second week of May and get to wandering. Chris’ll be sure to say hi if he sees you.

Spam of the day:

We can write any paper on any subject within the tightest deadline.

Dude, I handled the non-nerd parts of my college career with aplomb. By this time tomorrow I can bang out 8 – 10 pages on anything from the parallels between Pseudolus and Animal House to why the most significant driver of the quick victory in the first Gulf War was not smart munitions or stealth, but improved communications technology¹. Why on earth would I pay you to do it?